12 seconds of silence . . .
. . . refers to the time between the engine shutoff of a V-1 buzz bomb and the explosion of the 1 ton bomb payload. It is also the title of a recent book by Jamie Holmes
which covers the development of a counter to the V-1 and nearly all flying weaponry, the proximity fuse.
The man behind the proximity fuse is Merle Tuve (pictured here at the left next to Enrico Fermi, Neils Bohr is at the far right)
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| Merle Tuve, Enrico Fermi on left, Neils Bohr on right |
Interestingly, we learn that Merle was a whiz at Morse code and also was a boyhood friend of Ernest Lawrence (of Lawrence Livermore Lab fame). Btw, an excellent book about Lawrence titled: Big Science was written by Michael Hiltzik
The proximity fuse is one of the most impressive developments of World War II. It allowed an anti-aircraft shell to explode when in the near vicinity of a plane. The amazing thing is that this was done with vacuum tubes, the circuitry was exposed to accelerations of as much as 20,000 G.
The thing that I had never considered was that much of this acceleration was due to the spin of the shell imparted by the rifling of the gun barrel. And that the acceleration persisted even after the shell had left the barrel.
The book also mentions "the Oslo report" a famous dossier of scientific intelligence provided to the British at the start of the war by a man named: Paul Rosbaud. An excellent book about Rosbaud is titled: The Griffin by Arnold Kramish (Kramish worked on the Manhattan project)
Another mention in the book is the Battle of Arnhem in Holland aka A Bridge too Far, strangely Audrey Hepburn spent the war in the near vicinity of that bridge, yet another excellent World War II related book on Audrey is titled: Dutch Girl by Robert Matzen
finally YAM (yet another mention) in the book is the smashing of the Nazi Duquesne spy ring using double agent Bill Sebold. This was fictionalized in the movie: The House on 92nd street:
In other words, there isn't too much about World War II that doesn't get mentioned in this book. Including Julius Rosenberg ! Rosenberg delivered a proximity fuse to a Soviet spy in an automat !
Another concept I hadn't considered was that the U.S. Army used the proximity fuse with artillery to kill German soldiers by the thousands in the Battle of the Bulge. The ability to airburst an artillery round made it even more deadly.
And finally, proximity fuses were used on the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Again, an airburst is more destructive than if the bomb explodes on the ground.
So which item was most important in winning the war, the A-bomb, Penicillin, Radar, something else or the Proximity Fuse ? It's hard to judge. The reality is that the fuse was another puzzle piece used to win the war. More U.S. Navy ships would have been sunk without it, more German solders would have survived without it, more of London would have been destroyed without it.
Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm